Novo owner backs Swiss biotech Asceneuron in $100 million round
By Maggie Fick
LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) -Swiss biotech company Asceneuron said on Tuesday it had raised $100 million from investors including the controlling shareholder of Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk to fund clinical development of its Alzheimer's disease drug.
The Series C round was led by Novo Holdings, the investment arm of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, which will hold a board seat on the Lausanne-based company.
Asceneuron's lead experimental drug ASN51 is from a new class of drugs called O-GlcNAcase (OGA) inhibitors.
The company and Novo Holdings say they expect future trials to uphold their assertion that ASN51 is superior to those from the same class in development by rivals Biogen BIIB.O, Merck & Co MRK.N and Eli Lilly LLY.N.
OGA inhibitors prevent the aggregation of tau proteins in the brain to slow Alzheimer's progression. They are pills and could be a companion to another class of treatments that are injections targeting the beta amyloid protein.
Asceneuron will use the funds for a phase 2 trial that will begin later this year, CEO Barbara Angehrn Pavik said.
Naveed Siddiqi, senior partner at Novo Holdings, said that for decades drugmakers had failed to develop effective treatments for Alzheimer's despite the large number of people suffering from it, deterring investors.
But the field has recently reached an inflection point, he said, with breakthrough treatments that remove toxic proteins from the brain spurring new interest. His view echoed those of scientists and company executives interviewed by Reuters in November.
A week ago Novo Holdings led a separate 90 million pound ($116.78 million) funding round for British biotech Myricx Pharma to progress its experimental cancer drugs.
The wealth and influence of the Novo Nordisk Foundation is growing rapidly on the back of soaring profits from Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drug Wegovy and type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic.
Novo Holdings' capital to invest is also burgeoning. Its CEO Kasim Kutay told Reuters last year that its deal size in healthcare will rise, particularly for its principal investments, which is a separate part of the firm from the venture investments group leading this month's deals.
($1 = 0.7707 pounds)
Reporting by Maggie Fick; Editing by Jan Harvey
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